Who Killed Malcolm X

February 21, 1965 marks the day Malcolm X was murdered in Harlem, New York.

Whilst the murder has been blamed on the Nation Of Islam alone, in the latest Neflix Documentary Who Killed Malcolm X, a web of conspirators involving the FBI via the COINTELPRO Program and the NOI is revealed.

The Counterintelligence Program began in 1956 to undermine the Communist Party.

In the 1960s, its activities were extended to include other organisations like the Kuklax Klan and Black Panther Party.

In the end, its suggested that Malcolm X’s disagreement with NOI leader Elijah Muhammed would provide fertile ground for a conspiracy between the FBI and NOI that would lead to his assassination by the hand of William Bradley, aka Al Mustafa Shabazz, who was allegedly delivered the fatal shot at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem on that fateful day.

The Life & Times Of Malcom X

Malcolm X was a revolutionary who attacked the oppressive exploitative core of American Capitalism as well as the philosophy of White supremacy.

After Malcolm’s Father Earl Little was murdered by Members of the Ku Klax Klan, his mother suffered a psychiatric breakdown because she could not take care of his six siblings and he was sent to live in foster homes.

Whilst at School he told the Teacher he wanted to become a Lawyer, but was encouraged to try out being a Carpenter instead.

This experience disillusioned Malcolm X, and after school he became a criminal until he was later arrested for Burglary and sentenced to ten Years in Prison.

While in prison, he was recruited by the Nation of Islam.

Soon after, Malcolm Little became Malcolm X, saying he did not know his true ancestral name because it had been taken from him during Slavery.

As a prominent member of the NOI, Malcolm X rallied support behind the NOI and swelled its ranks by attacking the racist US government and urging the youth in the Civil Rights Movement to abandon Pacifism by actively resisting and protecting themselves from attacks by the Police during Civil Rights Protests.

Nevertheless, divisions started to come through between the leader of the NOI Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X after Malcolm became aware of Muhammed’s sexual relationships and children outside wedlock with some young women in the NOI.

Meanwhile FBI infiltration accelerated the rift between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammed which came to a head when Malcolm X described the assassination of John F. Kennedy as “Chickens Coming Home to Roost”.

In doing so, Malcolm X had disobeyed an order from Elijah Muhammad for the NOI to stay quiet on the JFK assassination.

Following the Kennedy response, Malcolm was expelled from the NOI, and he embarked on his own personal journey of self exploration which turned him into a Pan African Internationalist whose emphasis became the destruction of Capitalism.

With a decreased focus on Race Politics coupled with an Internationalist point of view, Malcolm X at this point represented a risk to the broader Capitalist system.

As such, it may ultimately have been this transformation and the inclusive Class Struggle Politics that would follow that may have motivated his assassination by the FBI COINTELPRO with the collusion of the NOI.

Check out the Netflix Documentary along with the classic Malcolm X Biography, Make It Plain below.